Corpses for prisoners - the last, grisly exchange of war

The bodies of two Israeli soldiers whose abduction by Hizbollah triggered the 2006 Lebanon war were returned yesterday in a prisoner exchange which saw the Lebanese perpetrator of a notoriously murderous attack on Israelis freed to a hero's welcome.

Two plain black coffins bearing the remains of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were transferred by the Lebanese guerrilla group to the International Red Cross, before being transported in its white vehicle across the border with Israel. The bodies were formally identified after several hours of examination by forensic scientists and will be given a military burial today.

The transfer process continued when four Hizbollah militants who had been held in Israeli jails were transported across the border in another Red Cross van for a red-carpet reception in the southern Lebanon town of Naqoura. The Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah later personally welcomed the five released militants at a rally in Lebanon's capital, Beirut. Among them was Samir Kuntar, who was convicted of killing an Israeli civilian and his daughter in a 1979 infiltration which also left two policemen dead.

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The most poignant moment for the families of the two Israeli soldiers had come much earlier, with the live television pictures showing Hizbollah personnel unloading the two coffins from a black civilian vehicle.

While the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, had already made clear that the government had presumed the soldiers were dead, there had been lingering hopes among some relative and friends that one might still be alive. "My throat is dry, my eyes are tearing and my heart goes out to the families that struggled without a sign [of life], and didn't lose hope until the very last moment," Mr Olmert said after the transfer of the bodies.

"Nobody else will understand what every Israeli understands well: the worry over the fate of every one of our soldiers is the glue which binds us as a society, and it this which allows us to survive in an area which is surrounded by enemies and terror organisations."

Ehud Goldwasser's father, Shlomo, told Israel Radio that the sight of the coffins on television "was not easy to see, though it didn't come as much of a surprise, but coming face-to-face with reality is always tough".

Omri Avni, whose daughter, Karnit, married Ehud Goldwasser shortly before his abduction, said: "After two difficult years, this was the most difficult moment. Karnit vowed to bring Udi home. Now that this mission has been accomplished, a storm of emotions has erupted."

The swap across the normally sealed border on a cliff high over the Mediterranean was strongly supported by most Israelis. But it also underscored the failure of the Israeli military onslaught on Lebanon in the summer of 2006 to achieve the return of the soldiers.

And while backed by the military and a large majority of the Israeli cabinet, it was opposed by the heads of the two main intelligence agencies, who feared that the return of live prisoners would act as an incentive to fresh abductions and endanger the lives of future hostages.

Both men were seriously wounded while being taken hostage, which may explain their subsequent deaths.

The public clamour for the soldiers to be returned dead or alive from Lebanon testified to a tireless public campaign by their families and in particular by Mrs Goldwasser, who travelled the world to press for the men's release. Last year, she even managed to infiltrate a New York press conference given by the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to challenge him "as the man that is behind the kidnapping due to the aid you grant Hizbollah" to explain why he did not allow the Red Cross to visit the two soldiers.

As for Samir Kuntar, in April 1979 he and three other gunmen landed by dinghy at the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, killed a policeman and burst into the apartment of Danny Haran, whom they then shot at a nearby beach in front of his four-year-old daughter.

A court found that Kuntar beat the four-year-old girl to death with a rifle butt, although that was denied by Kuntar, then 16, who said she was killed in a shoot-out at the beach which also killed another policeman and two of the militants.

Mr Haran's wife, Smadar, accidentally suffocated their other daughter, two, as she tried to stifle the little girl's whimpers as they hid in a cupboard in their apartment during the attack.

The campaign to bring home the two abducted soldiers was boosted when Mr Haran's widow said Kuntar should be dealt with according to "Israel's needs and ethical interests". Although Mr Haran's mother, Keren, did not agree, she nevertheless agreed to meet the Israeli President, Shimon Peres, who explained his formal pardon of Kuntar. She said afterwards: "He was very kind and spoke nicely. But I still don't understand how you can pardon him."

Israel also began transporting to Lebanon about 200 exhumed bodies, thought to be mainly Palestinians and to include that of Dalal al-Mughrabi, a Palestinian woman who led a raid on a bus in 1978 that killed 35 people.

The exchange is likely to focus fresh attention on efforts to release Gilad Shalit, the Israeli corporal who was abducted by Hamas militants in Gaza in June 2006.

As the liberal daily newspaper Haaretz called on Mr Olmert to facilitate a swift prisoner exchange for Cpl Shalit, a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said that yesterday's swap showed that seizing "Zionist soldiers" was the best way to free its prisoners.

Players in the deal

The murderer

Samir Kuntar was the highest profile Lebanese militant in an Israel prison. He was jailed for murder after an attack in 1979 when, aged just 16, he led four Palestine Liberation Front fighters in an amphibious raid on the town of Nahariya. They broke into the home of Danny Haran, 31, and his family. Mr Haran's wife, Smadar, hid in a cupboard with their daughter Yael, two, and a neighbour. Kuntar took Mr Haran and his other daughter, Einat, four, to the beach, where a shootout with police and soldiers erupted. Kuntar shot Mr Haran, then smashed Einat's head on rocks and crushed her skull with his rifle. He later claimed she was killed in the crossfire, in which a policeman was shot dead. Back at the flat, Yael was accidentally suffocated by her mother as she tried to stop the child from crying and revealing their hideout. Kuntar, now 46, returns home 29 years after the raid a hero of the Lebanese resistance.

Jeff Black

The Israeli soldiers

* Ehud Goldwasser, a newly married reservist sergeant-major, was six days short of his 30th birthday when he was seized by HIzbollah on the Israeli side of the Lebanon border. He had a degree in envionmental engineering from the Technion institute, where he also worked. As a teenager, he had lived in South Africa with his parents and two younger brothers.

* Sgt Eldad Regev, 25, planned to follow a law course at Bar Ilan University following his national service in the elite Givati Brigade. He had attended a religious elementary school in Kyriat Motzkin, where he continued to live after the death of his mother. Both he and Goldwasser were wounded in the July 2006 raid, at least one of them severely, the military said last year.